Open Mike

By popular demand, we created this forum to cover almost any topic your heart desires. The Forum name, "Open Mike" refers to the tradition that some comedy and music clubs have of offering all comers the opportunity to perform live impromptu at their establishments, with any material they come up with that is consistent with the theme and policies of that organization (in our case, the Mission statement in "Read Me" section), We'll even consider stuff not consistent, if you can persuade us that changes are needed.

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Coburn: Convention of States Needed Because Washington Will Never Fix Itself

Former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.)

(CNSNews.com) – “Washington is never going to fix itself,” said former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), explaining why he intends to spend the next few years trying to “cheat history” by helping to organize the nation’s first-ever Convention of the States.

The purpose of the convention will be to rein-in a federal “leviathan” that he says has overstepped its constitutional bounds.

Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, two-thirds of the state legislatures can call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution that limit the scope and jurisdiction of the federal government.

Alaska, Florida and Georgia passed Article V resolutions last year. Two dozen other states are also considering that option.

On January 6, the House of Representatives passed House Rule XII, Section 3(c) ordering the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee to keep track of all Article V Convention applications and have the Clerk’s Office make them “publicly available in electronic form, organized by State of origin and year of receipt.”

“It’s a difficult job,” Coburn, who recently signed on as a senior advisor to the Convention of the States project, told CNSNews.com. “You have to get 34 states to agree. But the group is very well-organized and has over 200,000 grassroots activists helping them.”

Coburn admitted that calling a convention of the states is a tacit admission that Washington is unable to solve the huge problems facing the country, but believes the United States has few options left.

“Most people know Washington is broken,” he told CNSNews.com. “Politicians there care about the next election, not the next generation. The career politicians make promises knowing they will be out of office when the bills come due. And I don’t see that there’s any way Congress is going to fix this in the next 10 or 15 years.

“That’s why I left early,” added Coburn, a family physician who retired from the Senate two years before his term expired after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“I identified $400 billion of waste, fraud and duplication, but none of it was eliminated. Nobody had the courage to eliminate it. And that’s why we need a Convention of the States: to diminish the power of the federal government.

“The CBO [Congressional Budget Office] and OMB [Office of Management and Budget] are not using real numbers and are not telling Americans the truth,” Coburn continued.

“We have $144 trillion in unfunded liabilities and we’re $18 trillion in debt. When you divide that by the population, it’s more than $500,000 for each American, which nobody has,” he said.

“Three thousand businesses closed last year. That hasn’t happened since World War II. Who’s going to loan the United States money knowing we can’t pay it back?” Coburn asked.

The U.S. financial system will collapse if something is not done about the federal government’s out-of-control spending, he pointed out. “Nobody knows when this will happen, but it will happen sooner rather than later,” he said. “Unless we unwind this, we’re going the way of the Romans and the Greeks.”

CNSNews.com asked Coburn why his fellow Republicans, who supposedly support limited government, have gone along with the vast expansion of federal power.

“The Republican Party is not the party of small government,” Coburn replied. “I’ve been in Washington for 16 years, when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, when Democrats controlled Congress, and every combination in between. There is no difference. There’s no difference,” he emphasized.

No matter which party was in charge, the federal government continued to grow and Americans’ liberty continued to diminish, he pointed out.

“They’ve already stolen the future from the next generation,” he said, adding that the current policies will continue “until the power is taken away and given back to the states.”

“It is testament to the wisdom of our Founders to have included the Convention of States provision in Article V in the Constitution because they knew someday government might grow too big, take on too much debt and promulgate reams of regulation that stifle American prosperity. There is no question that is the Washington that exists today,” Coburn wrote in a recent oped.

“Moreover, the Founders trusted the states and the people to step up and defend their own liberty and sovereignty. So do I.”

Coburn dismissed claims that an Article V Convention would open the door to malicious tampering with one of the nation’s founding documents, pointing out that just 12 states can stop any amendment from advancing to ratification.

“What I hear from conservatives is ‘Oh, we can’t do it. We might not be successful. It might be runaway’,” Coburn told Greta van Susteran. “You know, 69 of the 99 legislative bodies in the states are controlled right now by Republicans.

“But forget that. People in the country, outside of Washington, have a lot of common sense. They’re not about to let our First Amendment, our Second Amendment, our Fourth Amendment, our Sixth Amendment rights be taken away in some runaway convention. And besides, it only takes 25 legislative bodies to stop anything that would come out of that,” he said.

Protecting Immigrant Workers from Unscrupulous Employers: Strengthens state Labor Code protections for all workers by limiting misuse of E-Verify and creating penalties for abuse by unscrupulous employers.

This bill makes the E-Verify system illegal for nongovernmental businesses. It expands the definition of illegal businesses practices to include the use of E-Verify. It gives illegal aliens the ability to sue employers who use the E-Verify system at $10,00.00 per violation.

Thomas Jefferson is frequently quoted as a supporter of the Article V convention route, but he was more in favor of nullification of unconstitutional laws. The modern proponents of a convention say that nullification should not be used. But it should be used because it is essentially employing the Tenth Amendment to negate an unconstitutional federal law within a state through the legislature. Once this is done in enough states, the reality is that the law is never enforced.

The most famous use of this tactic was the Fugitive Slave Act. Regardless of the position of the Congress, the Executive, and the Supreme Court, enough states in the North defied the law and for all practical purposes it became unenforceable.

The difference between a convention and nullification is:

1. With nullification the Constitution is left intact. With a convention the Constitution is changed — and possibly even scrapped entirely.

2. Responsibility rests with the states with nullification. With a convention, the responsibility is passed off to a convention.

3. With nullification the end is known. With a convention it is unknown. Even the language of any proposed amendment is not formulated until the convention delegates are in session and debate the issue.

4. With nullification the elected legislature is sitting as the authority. With a convention no one knows who the delegates will be. One thing for sure, they will not be Madison, Hamilton, Washington, Jay, et al.

5. With nullification there are no amendments that need to be ratified. With a convention, should flawed amendments come through the process due to untoward influences on the delegates, a great deal of money and mass media support could cause the ratification of amendments that actually, although subtly, subvert the original intent of the Constitution. And not necessarily by three-fourths of the state legislatures. The amendments could instead be sent to special state ratifying conventions for the purpose of circumventing the legislatures. And the rules of ratification could even be changed by the convention.

Don't trust Congress to limit itself. Use a tool that states have had since their inception to stop federal tyranny. Unlike calling for a convention, states do not request anything from Congress.

2. AB 775 picks on the 70 licensed medical clinics who are providing abortion alternatives, representing only 4% of the 1700 community clinics in California.

3. AB 775 imposes an unreasonable burden on Pregnancy Medical Clinics by forcing them to disseminate a notice that advertises and implicitly refers their clients to a public program that funds abortion serivices for eligible women.

Any long-time reader of Constitution.com knows what we think of the hypocritical leftists at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).The supposedly anti-hate group has been spreading lies, misinformation, and hate for years and in recent days those lies have led directly to …See More

By Thomas DiLorenzoJune 22, 2011 "I have great respect for the Southern Poverty Law Center."~ Congressman Lacy Clay (D-Banksters)"Instead of monitoring "hate" and "extremism," they [the SPLC] are…See More

On Wednesday the House Oversight Committee, chaired by outgoing Congressman Jason Chaffetz, will hold a hearing re-examining Operation Fast and Furious and the Obama administration's handling of the scandal. The goals of the hearing are to "identify what the new officials at the Department of Justice can learn from the mistakes made by their predecessors in responding to Congress's inquiry" and "to understand the effect of the Justice Department's obstruction on these witnesses."…See More

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"lawsuit filed in federal court is uncovering the consequences of the Obama Administration’s unlawfully imposed transgender agenda.
After capitulating to Obama’s public school transgender edict in May, a Minnesota high…"

w This started in Santa Rosa, CA on April 19, 2015 - keep it going around the world! FOCUS ON THE MAN IN THE FIRST PICTURE. IT IS HIM THROUGHOUT THE SERIES OF PHOTOS SHOWN BELOW.If he is a hero, she is an angel.PLEASE, DO NOT HOLD ON TO THIS ORPRESS DELETE.SOMEONE HAS TO HOLD OUR COUNTRYIN THEIR HANDS.If you care to offer the smallest token of recognition and appreciation for our military, please pass this on and pray for our men and women who have served and are currently serving our…See More

In a Nut shell ( No pun intended too much ) California is making it easier for anyone including Illegal Aliens to vote in our elections. YOUR LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF STATEhas been requested and is URGENTLY NEEDED A Patriot has called this to our attention and ask that we pass it on - we ask that you do…See More

“consequently, that the ultimate right of the parties to the Constitution (i.e. the States), to judge whether the compact has been dangerously violated, must extend to violations by one delegated authority as well as by another--by the judiciary as well as by the executive, or the legislature.” Virginia Assembly Report 1800, James Madison.

If a nation can't define its boundaries, who comes in and on what terms, then it can't sustain itself culturally, financially, politically, morally and with security. It's not a nation.- G. Miller

"A lawyer is a person who knows the law" (Black’s Law Dictionary & other.) "It is said that all persons are presumed to know the law, meaning that ignorance of the Law excuses no one." (16 AM JUR 2D Sec. 178, 256.) Therefore all persons are presumed to be Lawyers.- Randy Due (illegally klidnapped by FBI and detained)

A federal government which does not derive its lawful and limited authority from the Constitution of the United States is by definition an occupation government and criminal regime. It’s authority is null and void and no one is bound by any rule of law to obey it. --Donald L. Cline

When Party Loyalty Demands You Support a Creep, It's Time to Walk Away-- Jim Geraghty

Everybody is still talking about the other baby, the royal baby. In fact, I saw that President Obama released a statement congratulating Prince William and Kate Middleton on the birth of their son. Then he said, “And whatever you do — hang on to that birth certificate.” - Jimmy Fallon

“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”-- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Bounel Soebarkah

"And if you didn't know, the only difference between socialism and communism is an AK-47 aimed at your head."- Quang Nguyen

Solution to the problem in Egypt :

They want a new Muslim leader, Give them ours.

The administration’s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law, the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of us away from the truth.

-Roger Ailes, Fox News

When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "Jesus, could You please get that for me.

- unknown

"There are 27 amendments in the Constitution but only one says 'shall not be infringed,'" Steve Toth said. "The Second Amendment is the amendment that keeps the people free."

“The States then being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity, that there can be no tribunal above their authority, to decide in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and consequently that as the parties to it, they must themselves decide in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition.” – James Madison

"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred." - Niccolo Machiavelli

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” - "Obama", 2008

"A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again."

This country does not need to have a conversation about how many bullets should go in a clip. It does need to have a conversation about how many parents should go in a family. It needs to talk about the ghettos of Obamerica and have a serious conversation about broken families and generational dependency. It needs to have a conversation about funneling new immigrants from broken parts of the world into areas already suffering from high levels of unemployment and street violence.- Daniel Greenfield

Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants and debt is the money of slaves.- Traditional

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!

A federal government which does not derive its lawful and limited authority from the Constitution of the United States is by definition an occupation government and criminal regime. It’s authority is null and void and no one is bound by any rule of law to obey it. --Donald L. Cline

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty." -- Thomas Jefferson

“Disarmament of the populace is always the first step to depriving them of their civil rights and human rights…many African-Americans and women are actively assaulting the very document that first secured their own freedom... if you do not believe in the Bill of Rights, then you are not, at heart, an American.” – Mike Adams

Only in America could liberals talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.

We need to demythologize guns before the liberal attempt to create a totemic fear of them succeeds. If the gun control mentality promoting fear of guns themselves becomes our national mentality, we would turn the clock back to the days when a warrior class ruled over the people because only they had the confidence and expertise to deploy the means of defense and coercion. The gun control agenda will turn us into a people too timid to defend themselves from our would-be masters. – Alan Keyes

So now that there is a new tragedy the president wants to have a “national conversation on guns”. Here’s the thing. Until this national conversation is willing to entertain allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons, then it isn’t a conversation at all, it is a lecture. – Larry Correia'

During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai Stevenson: Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person! Stevenson called back: That's not enough, madam, we need a majority.

The economy is so bad, MSNBC had to lay off 300 Obama spokesmen. - Jay Leno

'Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman

“What we’re watching here today is the equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein helping Nixon cover up Watergate,” he said. “The mainstream media is Woodward and Bernstein. Watergate is Benghazi. Except this time, Woodward and Bernstein are helping Nixon cover it up.”-- Russ Limbaugh

Lets see if I have this straight...Former President Bill Clinton ... who lied to his own wife... was convicted of perjury ... disbarred from practicing law in his home state... an admitted philanderer ... who "Never had sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" ... Impeached by the US House of Representatives ... is giving testimonials for Barrack Obama's character and intentions!!!??? Is this a great country or what!?

"Thanking Obama for killing Bin Laden is like going into McDonalds and thanking Ronald McDonald for the hamburger. It's the guy cooking the burger that should get the credit, not the clown."

referring to 10-3-12 debate: "Obama made a lot of good points tonight. Unfortunately, most of them were for Romney." - Bill Maher, million dollar Obama donor

How can we stand up to someone that creates a 100 dollar Federal Reserve (FR) note for 2 cents and uses the face value of the note of 100 dollars to buy a 100 dollar U.S. Security where the government has to pay them 4% in interest at the end of the year? A yearly cost of 4 FR notes where it only cost the FR 2 cents to print.

This is the biggest Conspiracy you may ever encounter and this started sometime around 1913. Yes, your parents and their parents had so much of their time stolen from them at a cost of 2 pennies. And the National Debt is one big fraud. And this is not just in the United States but the whole world.- Steven Pattison

“Can you imagine a nation founded on the principles of God is being taken over by a party that despises God, denies God’s existence and wants to stab Israel in the back in order to support the Islamists who would kill the Jews and drive them out of the Middle East?”- - Michael Savage

"WE own this country, and when someone doesn't do the job "we have to let them go."- Clint Eastwood at RNC

“Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through the process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. These truths are well known among our principal men who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. It is thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”- President American Bankers Association, 1924

"I think it is wonderful that Eric holder is making sure that Mexicans' second amendment rights are preserved!" - Bobby Florenz

“My father was a hardcore conservative and a straight line Republican voter before he died. Now he votes Democrat.” (-Unknown)

Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule.' Obama is under the mistaken impression that America's symbol is the bald ego." --The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto

‘In years to come there is going to be information that will come out that Obama was not the man who made the call. He can say he did and the people who really know what happened are inside the Pentagon, are in the military and the military isn’t allowed to speak out against the commander- in-chief so his secret is safe.’—Chris Kyle, former SEAL sniper

Remember just a few years ago when...

...the official unemployed was at 8.4 million instead of 12.4 million?

...the U.S. debt was at 9.5 trillion instead of 15.5 trillion?

...gas was $1.89 a gallon?

...the U.S. was friends with Isreal?

...food Stamp Recipients was at 29 million instead of 46 million?

...U.S. Astronauts didn't have to travel with Russians to go into space?

...our country's credit rating was a Triple AAA rating?

"Apparently, I'm supposed to be more angry about what Mitt Romney does with his money than what Barack Obama does with mine."- David Burge

Rep. Randy Neugebauer put the burden into perspective: “It will take over 24 million man hours to comply with Dodd-Frank rules per year. It took only 20 million to build the Panama Canal.”

"Sixty-one percent of debt issued by the Treasury is bought by the Federal Reserve -- which is to say the left hand of the U.S. Government is lending money to the right hand of the US Government. ... Nonetheless, in a land where every mewling babe in the American nursery is born with a debt burden of just under $200,000, the president brags that only his party is 'compassionate' to have no plan whatsoever even to attempt to do anything about this, no way, no how, not now, not ever." --columnist Mark Steyn

Isn't it amazing how every facet of Sergeant Bales life, high school, college, employment, why he left his employment, his brother’s employment, his wife’s employment, real estate holdings, a missed house payment , a missed promotion etc., is exposed within a week and the same fact finders can't find comparable info on the most powerful man in the world in three plus years ?

"We do not have a single document that proves Mr. Obama's birth in Hawaii or anywhere in the United States for that matter. The document is fake, the representation is fake.—Mike Zullo, Arpaio Posse Chief Investigator

" If they (SCOTUS destroy the Constitution, they will have destroyed that which created their positions." - Stewart Rhodes.

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, NOT to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Quick, name something that government does better than the private sector that doesn't involve detention, killing, or eliminating freedom." ----Bobby Florentz

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."---- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) 40th US President“The election of President Obama by the presidential electors, confirmed by Congress, makes the documents and testimony sought by plaintiff irrelevant,” Obama’s lawyer Jablonski said.

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”--Author Tom Clancy

But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so thatmy children can live in peace. "

- Thomas Paine.

"Look, the Taliban, per se, is not our enemy.”

- VP Joe BidenDecember 2011

"The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and for people, equally in war and peace, and it covers with its shield of protection all classes of men, at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of men that any of its great provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government."

– Ex Parte Milligan (1866)

Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of foreigners into the administration of our national government ; and to declare expressly that the command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on any but a natural born citizen.
I remain, dear sir,
Your faithful friend and servant,

John Jay.

Calling Ron Paul "out of the mainstream" is a double-edged sword, because it also means he can’t possibly be responsible for the condition of the country today.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->- - <!--[endif]-->Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

A guy named Reggie Love leaving the White House to get a degree at the Wharton School of Business. I guess he realized you can't learn anything about economics in the Obama White House.

- Jay Leno

Laws and regulations which violate the Constitution are not obligatory upon any free man.

(believed to be from George Washington.)

“We’re at that awkward stage where it’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.”

- Claire Wolf

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source".

-The Telegraph (good job Barack!)

Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable -Robert F. Kennedy

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -- Albert Einstein

The four boxes of LIBERTY:1. soap2. ballot3. jury4. ammo.....in that order!

"The actual need for a service, its relevance and value is always subordinate to the bureaucracy. This is the difference from the private sector: you go into a shop, and the sales assistant asks, 'Can I be of assistance to you, sir?' You go into a government agency: 'Get to the back of the queue and wait until you are called!”'

- Alistair Mcleod

"Only Malcolm X’s autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me. The blunt poetry of his words. His unadorned insistence on respect. He promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline."

– Barack Hussein Obama

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

-Oscar Wilde

“Anyone with an Obama 2012 Bumper Sticker is a Threat to the Gene Pool”

- Congressman Allen West

“The Only People Who Don’t Want to Disclose the Truth are Those with Something to Hide."

- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro

"If it takes a village to raise your kid, you’re in the wrong country."

- Seen by Tim Clack II

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

-Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Soebarkah Bounel

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. "

- Noam Chomsky

"Judge me by the people with whom I surround myself." -

- Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro (we are, Barry)

"…whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force…"